Halfur blinked like a newborn as the steam from the quenching vat in his mother’s forge filled his eyes. When the steam cleared, he lifted the tongs out of the water and peered at the key. “It’s even more key-like than the last three,” he said. His mother chuckled mildly as she leaned over her bench. Halfur brought the fourth key over to her and set it next to the first three. The blue crystal glow from the ceiling glimmered in the water that dripped off it onto the stone bench. Droplets of moisture fell from Halfur’s red-gold hair and blended with the blue lit water, causing the small pool to grow large.

“The ripples change from key to key,” his mother said as she looked at each with her examining glass. “The teeth and grooves may be secondary, essential but just the foundation.”

“Then how could the original have worked?” Halfur folded his arms across his chest.

“I’ve a notion, but it’s a strange one.”

“The lock has changed?” The idea seemed both impossible and inescapable. The catacombs had stood unentered for millenia, but all Thrond’s histories pointed to them being the reason Narvi settled Thrond to begin with. Surely Narvi meant for his people to one day enter them again. He was beginning to share his mother’s curiosity regarding what may be locked away deep beneath Obrus. It was hard for Halfur to conceive of anything more precious than mannarim hiding beneath the mountain. He knew that both Heth and Nirmo had large deposits of mannarim beneath them as well, but the mountains Eber and Enead had no catacombs like Narvi built under Obrus. Halfur wondered what Narvi must have found down there, and if he’d shared the discovery with his cousins Bolvi and Helhaad before they ventured to found their kingdoms to the north and south of Thrond, where Narvi settled.

“I can’t think of another reason. Shall we try them each?”

“Now? I have preparations to make before I leave for High Alden, and I need to check on Audun.”

“Very well. When we’ve beaten the goblins.” Halfi sighed.

“We will beat them, mother.”

“We? You will be safely tucked away on the Tall Hill.”

Halfur laughed mockingly. “We’ll see how safe we are there. But truly mother, what can Goblin Town do to Thrond that Thrond won’t do to them a hundred fold?”

“They’re fools to strike at us, which I’ve no doubt is why they’ve emptied their kingdom of all trained soldiers. They aim to win, son. Still, I don’t fear them. It’s whoever strikes after them that worries me. Will we have time to recover, with two thirds of our trained soldiers gone? Supposing you and Audun manage to save the third that remains. Even then… Oh I wish Balvor wouldn’t have sent that blasted necklace. How could he be so foolish?”

“He’s lived in father and Lobuhl’s shadows. Thrond has wanted for nothing with their leadership, and very little was ever asked of Balvor. Had more been expected of him, perhaps he would have learned to be more cautious.” Halfur put each of the keys in the strong boxes his mother had made for them. She looked at him thoughtfully, folding her arms across her chest and leaning against her work bench. “Don’t let that happen to Yemi. Promise me. That girl has a lot of spirit, but she’s overly playful.”

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Halfur smiled wryly. “Believe me, mother, Yemi’s playful years are numbered. And worry not over the battles to come. If half the kins rallied against us, they’d never hold Thrond for long.”

The door to Halfi’s forge opened, then shut, then received an urgent series of knocks. Halfi almost laughed, then bid Audun to enter.

“I found it!” he was shouting repeatedly as he charged into the room. He was holding his own special Book of Tides. Halfur sighed.

“Hear him before you dismiss him!” His mother was earnestly wroth. “Show us, sweet boy.”

Audun set his book on Halfi’s work bench, then leapt onto it, clambered for a moment, then fell onto the floor. Halfur rolled his eyes and hoisted him onto the bench by the collar of his tunic. Audun crawled on the bench until he was behind his book. There were probably more than a hundred strips of cloth marking specific pages. He opened it to a page marked with a strip of pale yellow-green. Both the left and right pages were dominated by an illustration of a creature that seemed a cross between a worm and a scorpion. There was a stone bowl filled with what looked like strongest liquor, and a wooden spoon. Atop the left page were the words “The children will kill us from within”, and near the bowl of strongest liquor on the right were the words “From death to life.”.

Audun then reached in a pouch on his belt and produced a crumpled piece of paper which he held triumphantly in front of Halfur. Halfur reluctantly took the page and uncrumpled it, then sighed deeply. “He tore it from Chieftain Yuhl’s records.”

His mother’s anger turned from him to Audun. “Which book?”

“The big one that he finds all his favorite cures from,” Audun replied, seemingly unaware of the Queen’s brewing ire.

“You tore a page from Oak and Holly?” Her voice was tight and thin. Audun’s lower suddenly lip began to quiver. “Don’t!” she said sharply. She quickly clasped her hands behind her back and spoke in the gentlest voice she could muster. “Audun, Oak and Holly is an important book. It’s the foundation of all our heartsmiths’s healing methods. Tearing a page out of it was not very thoughtful.”

Oddling’s lip calmed, and he nodded slowly. “Please forgive me,” the boy said. “The book was so heavy, and I couldn’t carry them both.”

“Then why not just bring Oak and Holly?” Halfur was ready to give Audun a real reason to cry. The boy likely sensed his irritation, and gestured with his head to the crumpled page. Halfur smoothed it out on the table and read it aloud. “The eels of Ceti are fortunately rare, as yet only to be found in the moroby sea near the coast of Drow Primus. Their eggs are attached to kelp and ingested by fish and crustaceans who feed on low light vegetation. The eggs hatch quickly, and the larvae rapidly devour the flesh of the bowels and occasionally, if from a highly aggressive brood, the lungs of their hosts. They die instantly when exposed to open air. Sadly, there is no way known to thwart the ravaging done by their larvae. In adult form, they appear as a slender black or grey worm with small, horn-like appendages.”

Halfur looked up at the pages in the Book of Tides. “strongest liquor?” He thought for a moment. He was not an expert on agriculture, but he knew strongest liquor to be useful in settling irritated bowels. The larvae devour the bowels and lungs, which would cause a man to cough up blood and phlegm as the soldiers have done. “Does this strongest liquor heal the damage, or kill the larvae?”

“What difference does it make?” his mother said urgently. “Go ready yourself for your journey, son. I have to go to the heartsmiths now. You’ve both done wonderfully! Audun, I want you to begin copying Oak and Holly in its entirety. That should teach you never to tear pages from important texts ever again.” Audun took a long, deep breath, then nodded dutifully.